An official website of the United States government
In the transition toward sustainable agriculture, farms have emerged as eco-friendly pioneers, harnessing cleanhybrid wind and solar systems to improve farm performance. A concern in this paradigm is the effective sizing of renewable energy systems to ensure optimal energy use within budget considerations. This research focuses on optimizing renewable energy sizing in small-scale ammonia production to meet specific farm demands and enhance local resilience, emphasizing the interplay between environmental and economic factors. These findings promise increased energy efficiency and sustainability in this innovative agricultural sector. Additionally, our approach considers small-scale ammonia plant needs and the dynamic relationships between ammonia, water, and farm demands. Simulations demonstrate substantial cost savings in farm electricity consumption. Specifically, scenarios with renewable energy integration in the farm can reduce at least 13% electricity cost compared to a grid-dependent system in the 15-year simulation.
more »
« less
A Demand-Responsive Green Ammonia Plant and its Impact on the Electricity Distribution System
Most large-scale ammonia production typically relies on natural gas or coal, which causes harmful carbon pollution to enter the atmosphere. The viability of a small-scale “green” ammonia plant is investigated where renewable electricity is used to provide hydrogen and nitrogen via electrolysis and air liquefaction, respectively, to a Haber-Bosch system to synthesize ammonia. A green ammonia plant can serve as a demandresponsive load to the electricity distribution system and provide long-term energy storage through chemical energy storage in ammonia. A coordinated operational model of an electricity distribution system and an electricity-run ammonia plant is proposed in this paper. Case studies are performed on a modified PG&E 69-node electricity distribution system coupled with a small-scale ammonia plant. Results indicate the ammonia plant can adequately serve as a demand response resource and positively impact the distribution locational marginal price (DLMP).
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1856084
- PAR ID:
- 10399101
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2022 IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM)
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 5
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
The storage of renewable energy is the major hurdle during the transition of fossil resources to renewables. A possible solution is to convert renewable electricity to chemical energy carriers such as hydrogen for storage. Herein, a highly efficient formate-piperidine-adduct (FPA) based hydrogen storage system was developed. This system has shown rapid reaction kinetics of both hydrogenation of piperidine-captured CO 2 and dehydrogenation of the FPA over a carbon-supported palladium nano-catalyst under mild operating conditions. Moreover, the FPA solution based hydrogen storage system is advantageous owing to the generation of high-purity hydrogen, which is free of carbon monoxide and ammonia. In situ ATR-FTIR characterization was performed in order to provide insight into the reaction mechanisms involved. By integrating this breakthrough hydrogen storage system with renewable hydrogen and polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC), in-demand cost-effective rechargeable hydrogen batteries could be realized for renewable energy storage.more » « less
-
In recent years, global efforts towards a future with sustainable energy have intensified the development of renewable energy sources (RESs) such as offshore wind, solar photovoltaics (PVs), hydro, and geothermal. Concurrently, green hydrogen, produced via water electrolysis using these RESs, has been recognized as a promising solution to decarbonizing traditionally hard-to-abate sectors. Furthermore, hydrogen storage provides a long-duration energy storage approach to managing the intermittency of RESs, which ensures a reliable and stable electricity supply and supports electric grid operations with ancillary services like frequency and voltage regulation. Despite significant progress, the hydrogen economy remains nascent, with ongoing developments and persistent uncertainties in economic, technological, and regulatory aspects. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the green hydrogen value chain, encompassing production, transportation logistics, storage methodologies, and end-use applications, while identifying key research gaps. Particular emphasis is placed on the integration of green hydrogen into both grid-connected and islanded systems, with a focus on operational strategies to enhance grid resilience and efficiency over both the long and short terms. Moreover, this paper draws on global case studies from pioneering green hydrogen projects to inform strategies that can accelerate the adoption and large-scale deployment of green hydrogen technologies across diverse sectors and geographies.more » « less
-
The purpose of this work is to quantitatively compare the energy cost of design alternatives for a process to produce ammonia (NH3) from air, water, and renewable electricity. It is assumed that a Haber–Bosch (H–B) synthesis loop is available to produce 1000 metric tons (tonnes) of renewable NH3 per day. The overall energy costs per tonne of NH3 will then be estimated at U.S.$195, 197, 158, and 179 per tonne of NH3 when H2 is supplied by (i) natural gas reforming (reference), (ii) liquid phase electrolysis, (iii) solid oxide electrolysis (SOE) of water only, and (iv) simultaneous SOE of water and air. A renewable electricity price of U.S.$0.02 per kWh electric, and U.S.$6 per 10^6 BTU for natural gas is assumed. SOE provides some energy cost advantage but incurs the inherent risk of an emerging process. The last consideration is replacement of the H–B loop with atmospheric pressure chemical looping for ammonia synthesis (CLAS) combined with SOE for water electrolysis, and separately oxygen removal from air to provide N2, with energy costs of U.S.$153 per tonne of NH3. Overall, the most significant findings are (i) the energy costs are not substantially different for the alternatives investigated here and (ii) the direct SOE of a mixture of steam and air, followed by a H.–B. synthesis loop, or SOE to provide H2 and N2 separately, followed by CLAS may be attractive for small scale production, modular systems, remote locations, or stranded electricity resources with the primary motivation being process simplification rather than significantly lower energy cost.more » « less
-
Electricity bill constitutes a significant portion of operational costs for large scale data centers. Empowering data centers with on-site storages can reduce the electricity bill by shaping the energy procurement from deregulated electricity markets with real-time price fluctuations. This work focuses on designing energy procurement and storage management strategies to minimize the electricity bill of storage-assisted data centers. Designing such strategies is challenging since the net energy demand of the data center and electricity market prices are not known in advance, and the underlying problem is coupled over time due to evolution of the storage level. Using competitive ratio as the performance measure, we propose an online algorithm that determines the energy procurement and storage management strategies using a threshold based policy. Our algorithm achieves the optimal competitive ratio of as a function of the price fluctuation ratio. We validate the algorithm using data traces from electricity markets and data-center energy demands. The results show that our algorithm achieves close to the offline optimal performance and outperforms existing alternatives.%more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/PESGM48719.2022.9917204
